Office for National Statistics Sets November 2027 Survey Transition

The Office for National Statistics plans to transition to the Transformed Labour Force Survey in November 2027. The agency will make a final decision on the move in July 2027, balancing a data-led approach against the costs and quality issues of running the existing Labour Force Survey and the new system in parallel.

This transition follows a 2023 collapse in response rates that forced the agency to temporarily suspend key figures for employment, unemployment, and economic inactivity. The new online-based survey is designed to restore trust in British economic data after several errors affected key statistics. The agency aims to ensure the new data quality reaches a level where users have confidence in decommissioning the old system.